


you're a [mess]

by chasingblue57



Category: Code Black (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-03
Updated: 2017-02-03
Packaged: 2018-09-21 20:03:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9564206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chasingblue57/pseuds/chasingblue57
Summary: Running late for a scholarship dinner, Mario needs a little help fixing his tie.





	

Mario is, of course, already running late for his scholarship dinner when he fucks his tie up spectacularly.

He’d been halfway out the door an hour ago when one of his patients had coded and it had taken another forty-five minutes before she was stable enough for him to consider leaving and even then he’d hesitated, re-checking vitals and charts, until Malaya and Angus had teamed up to mother hen him out the door and off toward the locker room. Thank god he’d expected something to go wrong and had brought his suit with him this morning, just in case.

A quick rinse later and he’s standing the locker room in his suit, hair mostly towel dry, trying to untangle his tie using the camera on his cellphone to peer at the knot.

It’s not like they’re going to take his scholarship away if he’s late (or, realistically, even if he doesn’t go; he’s pretty sure). The organization might not want to give him any more if he skips out though and Mario isn’t really in a place where he can afford to offend anyone willing to cut down on his impending stunt loan debt. It’s not like they don’t know he’s an emergency medicine resident and they should know that he works nights and can’t get time off and has patients who try to die on him every time he turns away. It’s fucking stupid that this could potentially count against him: he’s literally doing the job that they apparently felt was important enough to help pay for.

Frustrated and distracted, Mario’s fingers jam together on the knot and he cusses, out loud and repeatedly, as he tugs more insistently on the blue silk. He hates dress up, has never managed to master anything but the simplest of (non-suture) knots and of course, because he’s in a hurry, he can’t manage to focus enough to fix this one.

“You’re a mess,” comes a wry voice, clearly amused and only a few feet behind his shoulder.

He doesn’t need to look to know who it is, but of course he turns to look over his shoulder and roll his eyes at her anyway, trying to tuck away the corners of his grin as he takes in Noa’s expression. She’s clearly trying not to laugh while maintaining an unimpressed, arched brow. It’s not working well for her.

There’s a second of stalemate silence where they’re both just watching each other, waiting for one of them to crack, and then Noa takes the high ground and does it for them. Shaking her head, smile winning out, she crosses the space between them with her hands extended, gaze skirting between his and the noose he’s only managed to get half untangled. “Let me see,” she mumbles unnecessarily.

Mario’s about to duck to give her better access when she tugs him down to where she wants him anyway (the last, lingering traces of the pride he used to walk around Angels with can’t help but be glad she’s too focused on his tie to notice his fond grin).

He tries not to watch as Noa’s fingers, lithe and nimble from her med school training, expertly navigate undoing the mess he’s created but it’s also kind of impossible not to glance down when she wrangles it look and smoothes out the wrinkled fabric against his chest. It’s even more difficult when she leans forward, those same steady fingers running along the collar of his shirt to turn it up so she can reposition the fabric of the tie and tug the ends to their appropriate lengths.

Goosebumps race their way up his neck as her knuckles brush against his neck and Mario doesn’t bother to bury the quirk of his half smile or hide the way his gaze sweeps across her face to enjoy her look of focus, as serious and concentrated as she twists and turns the scrap of silk as she is above a patient. There’s definitely something unhelpful happening with his blood pressure and his pulse as she finishes the knot and adjusts the ends but he can’t bring himself to mind even when his “thanks” is a little deeper than it should be.

He minds even less when Noa doesn’t step back before looking up, all knowing grins and sharp gaze, and just shrugs, “You’re welcome. Have fun tonight,” and then lingers for a long, loaded second before turning to get back to her own patients.

She does pause at the doorway, glancing back over her shoulder to add, “Nice suit,” in a way that gets his pulse racing again.

Mario debates the merits of any potential extra scholarships against his desire to catch her and pull her into a kiss but by the time he’s mentally deciding to fuck the scholarship, she’s already back in the ER.

He does at least catch her gaze and smirk as he walks out.

**Author's Note:**

> I have a weakness okay? Goddamn ties. So this is one of my make up fics for my every-day-in-Feb birthday month fic marathon :)


End file.
